While contemplating the suffering of humanity, tears shed by Avalokiteshvara filled a lake in which a lotus blossom unfurled its petals, revealing within the most pure and perfect being. This perfection and purity was embodied in the sensuous female form of the goddess Tara, who is represented here as Shyama— Green Tara—the bountiful saviour of humanity. The goddess is seated in lalitasana on a lotus, her right hand lowered in varadamudra, the gesture of charity, her left hand holding the stem of a flower. Her naked torso is adorned with jewellery; she wears a crown, large hoop earrings and a patterned textile garment tied at the waist with an elaborate girdle.

This delightful sculpture of Tara is typical of the late Pala period style from eastern India that was influential in the development of Tibetan art in the twelfth and thirteenth century.1

1. Compare the stepped platform of the lotus pedestal with an eastern Indian Ucchusma Jambhala, see von Schroeder, 2001, pl. 102A, p. 302, and compare the bangle and upper armband design with an eleventh-century eastern Indian Tara, ibid. pl. 73C, p. 241, and the simple textile pattern, girdle and upper arm band design, and shape of the lotus petal base with a c. twelfth-century eastern Indian Padmapani, see Weldon & Casey Singer, 1999, pl. 6, p. 45.